San Jose Sharks coach Todd McLellan seeks cure for ailing power play

The Sharks power play is in a downward spiral that has dropped it to 19th in the NHL, and a significant drop in production by captain Joe Thornton is a big part of the reason.

Thornton scored 33 points on nine goals and 24 assists when San Jose had the man advantage last season. This year, he has one goal and seven points in 44 games -- a pace that would have him finishing with 20 fewer points than in 2010-11.

"I think Jumbo would like to have more production there, and he's the focal point. It's his power play," coach Todd McLellan said Friday. "It runs through him, but there are other pieces in the mix, and they have to be productive."

A San Jose power play that finished second in the NHL with a 23.5 percent success rate last season is currently putting the puck in the net only 16.9 percent of the time. And since Dec. 23, that number is a more troubling 11.4 percent as the Sharks have gone 5 for 44.

McLellan and his staff have been tinkering along the way, hoping for improvement. But before the Sharks headed to Vancouver for the start of three-game tour of Western Canada before the NHL All-Star break, the coach said he was ready to try something new to spark Thornton and the special teams unit:

Breathing room.

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"We've tried personnel shuffling around, we've tried to reposition him, we've tried different offensive strategies," McLellan said. "We want desperately for them to succeed, and we might be overcooking it and slowing them down. For the next little bit, we'll turn the power play over to them a little bit."

Thornton, of course, isn't the only Shark showing a drop in power play productivity. Joe Pavelski and Patrick Marleau aren't keeping pace with the previous year, either, but their decline isn't as steep.

Thornton points out that power play production goes in cycles.

"Sometimes it goes really good and sometimes it doesn't," he said. "Right now for whatever reason, it's just not going to the back of the net. We've still got a lot of time."

And what will it take to get his game going?

"Just shoot more," he said. "Get in front of the net."

For Thornton, the bottom line is that the Sharks have been winning games despite the drop-off in production. Ask about recent problems on the power play and he'll point to the team's 7-2-1 record in its last 10 games.

"We've gone when the power play was the only good thing about the hockey team," Thornton said. "Would you rather your five-on-five be great? If you could have it all, great. But that's not the reality of it. That's not hockey."

Add another Shark to the injured list as rookie Tommy Wingels won't be in the lineup Saturday when the Sharks face Vancouver.

McLellan said Wingels suffered an upper body injury in Thursday night's 4-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators and will miss at least the next three games before the break.

The injury occurred when Wingels, Pavelski and Ottawa forward Chris Neill all came together along the side boards near the San Jose bench at 4:26 of the third period.

"It looked pretty innocent," McLellan said.

Wingels was elevated to San Jose's top line with two of the team's top six forwards -- Ryane Clowe and Marty Havlat -- already on injured reserve.

In practice Friday, Andrew Desjardins skated in what had been Wingels' slot alongside Pavelski and Thornton. McLellan said that could be how things line up against the Canucks, but "we'll try to audition a bunch of people."

The Sharks have reassigned forward Frazer McLaren to Worcester, but he will have to clear waivers before he gets there.

The NHL announced that McLellan and John Tortorella of the New York Rangers will share coaching duties for Team Alfredsson at the Jan. 29 All-Star game -- essentially the home team as Daniel Alfredsson is captain of host Ottawa.